List of contents

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[Subregional Strategies in Europe]

iver b. neumann

23 A Region-building Approach to Northern Europe

This article argues the case for a new approach to the analysis of regions. It highlights how a region is constantly being defined and redefined by its members in a permanent discourse with each member attempting to identify itself at a core of the region. The core is defined in both territorial and functional terms and this definition necessarily involves a manipulation of knowledge and power. The first part of the article sketches the two dominant approaches in the existing literature: an ‘inside-out’ approach focusing on cultural integration and an ‘outside-in’ approach focusing on geopolitics. Then the second part of the article identifies how the two approaches have comprehended Northern Europe, and it then uses the region-building approach to criticize and supplement their findings.

hans mouritzen

65 The Nordic-Baltic Area: Divisive Geopolitics at Work

States in the Nordic-Baltic area reacted heterogeneously to the Iraq War operation. The research tool used to explain this pattern is the

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tomasz grzegorz grosse

98 EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region Geopolitics

Geopolitical issues are directly related to the territorial policies pursued within the European integration process. It should first and foremost be noted that under the influence of integrationist processes as well as in relation to economic globalization a change in territorial logic in Europe has occurred. The author considers to what degree the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region can be regarded as an example of the pursuit of economic goals on the one hand and of the transformation in geopolitical thinking resulting from the evolution of European integration – at its current stage of development – on the other.

He also attempts to provide an answer to the question of how the Member States influence European instruments – such as law or EU redistribution policies – to achieve geopolitical aims. This is especially relevant in the case of Sweden, which is the initiator of the Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, as well as the other Nordic states.

olaf osica

119 Underrated Neighborhood

The Baltic Sea has played a prominent role in the history of Poland.

Despite this, Poland’s contemporary political identity has completely let go of the Baltic element, both as it relates to the sea itself as well as to the region. Developments in the European political arena, however, prompt the Baltic themes to return to the foreign policy agenda through the back door. This process is not entirely conscious, nor is it by any means spectacular, but in the long-term perspective it does allow for a gradual rediscovery of the Baltic region as one of the important vectors of Polish foreign policy. The new regionalization of the Baltic Sea also presents an opportunity to change the political habits of the countries in the region, which despite sharing a common institutional framework in the form of the EU and NATO, similar views of the challenges and threats to the stability and balanced development of the region, and uniform political systems, are inclined to act in ways where national interests can trump the interests of the region as a whole.

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mateusz gniazowski, tomáŠ stráŽay

133 The Construction of the Danube Macroregion

The nascent EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) is the second example – next to the existing EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region – of the growing importance of the so-called macroregions within the EU. At the same time, both strategies are pilot projects whose successful implementation will serve as an inspiration and a paradigm for the subsequent macroregions. EUSDR’s main goal is to exploit the potential of the Danube River and the regions through which it flows through the improvement of coordination between entities operating in the Danube basin. For it is better coordination rather than more funding which is to play a crucial role in creating European added value through macroregional strategies. EUSDR is to strengthen the European integration process by reducing divisions in the economic and social spheres, aiding infrastructure development with an emphasis on environmental protection, and promoting balanced growth.

natolin european centre, prepare by marek a. cichocki

153 The Black Sea Region as a Security Area

In referring to the Black Sea Region one speaks not only of the countries having direct access to this particular body of water but of a broader area including the Caucasus, the Balkans and Greece, as well.

This article describes the security situation in the South Caucasus countries, constituting a unique subregion of the Black Sea Region geographically located between the Black and the Caspian Seas and which is the focus of policies pursued by the two traditional Black Sea Region regional powers, i.e. Russia and Turkey, as well as the EU and the U.S. The author also analyzes the approach toward the Black Sea Region taken by the region’s remaining political players. The goal hereunder is to define the current fundamental security issues in the Black Sea Region and outline the main security trends in the area, both of which are key from the standpoint of the Western security structures.

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[Regional Development Theories

vs. Security Policy]

rikar bengtsson

187 Interfaces of Regional Security

The goal behind this article is to find an analytical framework which would capture regional security dynamics in the post-Cold War era. In order to shed some light on the concept of regional security, the author critically analyzes Buzan and Wæver’s theory of regional security complexes as well as a few other works. He then makes an attempt to create a general structure based on a combination of rational and constructivist thinking for the purpose of political interaction research.

To this end, he also studies key concepts such as interface, recognition, actorness, identity and power. The resulting analytical structure needs to be sufficiently general so as to make it possible to use it to study all cases of political interaction. In this article the proposed structure has been applied to the EU as a European security actor.

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[Reviews]

piotr kosmala

229 The Emperor’s New Clothes Minus the Emperor

ULRICH BECK, ULRICH GRANDE, Europa kosmopolityczna.

Społeczeństwo i polityka w drugiej nowoczesności, Warszawa:

Wydawnictwo Naukowe SCHOLAR, 2009.

jakub lubelski

232 On the Indispensability of Mathematics in Politics

MAREK A. CICHOCKI, KAROL ŻYCZKOwsKI, red., Institutional design and voting power in the European Union, Burlington: Ashgate, 2010.